The World Bank has granted Morocco 350 million dollars to improve the governance, restructuring, competitive neutrality, and performance monitoring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on Thursday.
Signed by Nadia Fettah, Morocco’s Minister of Economy and Finance, and Jesko Hentschel, Director of the World Bank’s Maghreb and Malta Department, the funding agreement aims to strengthen the North African country’s state-ownership functions, improving SOE governance and management practices, foster performance monitoring – including climate impacts- and provide a framework for fair competition.
At the signing ceremony, Fettah stated that the agreement solidifies the “exemplary cooperation relationship” Morocco has with the WB and supports the implementation of the SOE reform process.
SOE reform is being implemented pursuant to framework law no. 50-21 and law no. 82-20, the latter which establishes the National Agency for the Strategic Management of State Holdings and the Monitoring of the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises (ANGSPE).
The agreement also follows the Council of Ministers’ approval on June 1, 2024, of the strategy for Morocco’s shareholding policy, as one of the pillars of reform. Specifically, Morocco will reconfigure its public portfolio and improve its performance and governance, as well as promote the participation of the private sector in investment efforts.
In light of Morocco’s ambitious commitments to SOE reform, the WB-financed program seeks to strengthen the state’s shareholding functions and SOE governance system, resize its public portfolio, and ensure competitive neutrality, as well improve SOE monitoring.
The initiative will be conducted over five years by both ANGSPE and the Department of Public Enterprises and Privatization, in collaboration with all stakeholders.